The first year of the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG) has been a busy one. The establishment of the group has taken tremendous behind the scenes effort. To the very many community and industry members involved I would like to say a heartfelt thank-you.

I hope that you, like me, are beginning to see signs that all this effort is bearing fruit.

GILG is focused on improvement of industry engagement, transparency and accountability. So it makes sense to use these fundamental GILG values to measure our progress.

In regards to engagement, GILG has formed strong relationships with community, government and industry representatives and built a comprehensive understanding of community and industry issues. This has been done through community surveys, participation in EcoFest and in numerous community meetings, presentations, forums and workshops.

This engagement has led to industry considerably increasing their transparency.  This progress includes the use of the Observer column and the www.gilg.com.au site to provide plain English information on industry environmental licences, emissions and breaches as well as Frequently Asked Questions and past environmental improvements.

The last value of accountability is being achieved in two ways. Firstly, GILG members have welcomed the recently released Interim Health Risk Assessment and the fact that Gladstone industry and other emitters are being held accountable for their impacts on the quality of Gladstone's air. GILG’s members look forward to the release of the final Health Risk Assessment and its definitive findings.

GILG members are also working with their employees to identify behavioural changes and capital works that will reduce their air emissions. This is part of GILG members’ ongoing community accountability to continually improve their environmental performance.

Moreover GILG members have found that by supporting each other and by acting together, their collective improvement actions are far more effective than they would have been if they were acting alone.

So if you have any suggestions for areas where you think GILG members should join forces or have any feedback on our first year, please visit our www.gilg.com.au forum topic.

If you would like to have your say on how GILG is going and don't know how, please click on this link which shows you how to register and make a comment, anonymously if you wish.

In the meantime, on behalf of GILG’s members and my family, I wish you and your loved ones a very joyous Christmas and prosperous New Year.

Until my next column on 30 January 2010, cheers, Kurt.